Jessie: Old Past, New Path
by wonderful-world-of-disneyxo
Summary: this is basically the summary of Jessie before Toy Story 2. Emily, darkness, and Al. i dont own any of these characters! please enjoy. the summary seems trashy on the outside, but its better on the inside. promise!
1. Best of Friends

Hey, everyone! My story wasn't really getting anywhere, and I decided it wasn't great anyway. So I started a completely different one. And this one hopefully will be more appealing to all of us, including me. I decided to take a step back, to Jessie and Emily. And play-by-play their life together, so you guys can think of it as based off of the song "when she loved me" in toy story 2. And sooner or later it'll go into how she ended up with Al. The reason I decided to take the step back was cuz I tried to work with after toy story 3, but I didn't wanna mess with the ending Disney left us. And I know this sounds like the cheesiest thing ever. But I am a toy story freak. So pause. Rewind. Play.

PS-i was watching TS2 and realized i left out the camping scene with emily. so i put in a short one. im on vacation and dont have that much time to write! hope u enjoy and i promise to make it a better scene when ihave the time!

"Giddy up, Horsie!" Emily exclaimed as she jumped around her room while holding Jessie, her cowgirl doll, on a plastic horse. She grabbed her red cowgirl hat from off her bed. "Yee-Haw!" The six year old did this for hours at a time, seeing that she was young and creative. Though she was only a toy, Emily's imagination brought her to life, because to the little girl, Jessie was real. And Jessie loved the feeling of being important. Her spunky, confident, and upbeat attitude required play time. Emily's room was a dream-come-true for any cowgirl toy. Horse wall paper lined the room and her dresser was filled with all sorts of items from Jessie's hit TV show Woody's Roundup, including lunch boxes, yo-yos, and a guitar, all featuring Jessie herself. "Emily, time for lunch!" Emily's mom called upstairs.

Emily dropped the horse onto her bed and carried Jessie down to the kitchen with her. As Emily ate her sandwich, Jessie sat limp in the chair beside her. "Can Jessie and me go jump into leaf piles?" Emily asked her mom when she was done eating.

"It's Jessie and I." her mom corrected, while shaking her head. "And I'm not sure it's a good idea to bring Jessie. You might lose her."

"She'll be fine, mom. Besides, she's the toughest cowgirl in the whole wild west!" Emily exclaimed.

Her mom smiled and said, "Well, have fun then!"

Emily opened the door to the backyard and stepped out. She spotted a big pile of raked leaves and turned to Jessie. "Ya'll ready?" she asked the doll in her best western accent. And as if hearing a silent answer, she hoisted Jessie onto her shoulders, ran, and jumped into the leaves, sending them everywhere. Emily laughed, which brought a smile to the insides of Jessie. As long as Emily was happy, she was happy."Race you to the swing set!" Emily told Jessie as she grabbed the cowgirl's hand and ran to the swings, which were now covered in leaves. "It's a tie!"

They swung, and went down the slide a few times. Then Emily threw Jessie while spinning and closing her eyes and had to find her; this was her version of hide-and-seek. On occasion, Jessie would be thrown behind something; but she was usually in the middle of the backyard. "Why do you always hide where I can see you, Jess?" Emily would ask, pretending Jessie could hide herself.

It became the friday of the last week before school. Emily's parents took her camping in the park. As her parents were packing up their gear, Emily said good-bye to Jessie. She looked at the cowgirl's face and suddenly felt said. What girl wanted to leave her best friend behind? So with a lot of begging and pleading, Jessie came along on the adventure. She sat on a tree stump and watched Emily help her parents with the tent. Darkness came late, but Emily refused to go to sleep until she made two smores: one for her and one for Jessie (though she ended up eating both of them). "Time to go to sleep." her mother ordered. So Emily took Jessie and went into her own tent. In the middle of the night, Emily woke up to stirring in the bushes beside her. Her imagination thought it was a big, bad bear (in reality, it was a stray cat). This scared Emily, but she was too fearful to get her parents, so she clutched Jessie with all her might.

So as the summer ended, Autumn started, which meant an all new season of Woody's Roundup. Each day went the same. Emily woke up and went to school for a few hours. In those few hours, Jessie would play with the plastic horses and occasionally watch the small television if no one was home; she would pop in a video cassette from an old season of her TV show. Then Emily would get home and she and Jessie would play for continuous hours. 6 o' clock would come around and that meant dinner time. After dinner was a new episode of Woody's Roundup. Before going to sleep, Emily would reenact that night's show with Jessie, the horses; and some other miscellaneous toys would substitute the other characters. Finally, lights out. Emily would fall asleep while hugging Jessie, who would smile and cuddle with her owner through the night.

But as the days carried on, Emily's birthdays kept passing. By the time she was eight, Jessie would stay on her bed for most of the day. Whenever Emily had a bad day, she would run to her room and cry to Jessie, who she would hold close to her face to wipe her tears. Aside from the not-always bad day, the only quality time Emily spent with her cowgirl anymore was while watching Woody's Roundup, but there was no more reenacting the scenes. Jessie sensed in her stuffing that things were changing, but she wouldn't believe it. She couldn't believe it. After all, she had nothing without Emily. She was nothing without her. Two more birthdays passed and Emily was ten years old; Woody's Roundup was canceled long before. Her friend, Ruby, had a cooler older sister, who she idolized. She wanted nail polish and make up for her birthday, so that's what she got. Ruby came over one day to do each other's make up. "You better not get any nail polish on your floor!" Emily's mom shouted upstairs. This made Emily take her pillow off the bed. Jessie was lying on the pillow, so without noticing it, Emily made her raggedy best friend fall through the cracks to underneath the bed. This shocked Jessie as she crawled to the corner to see what was going on.

"She'll remember me before she goes to bed." Jessie assured herself. "She'll come looking for me."

Nighttime came and Emily crawled on top of her bed. Jessie became lifeless, anticipating sounds from looking under the covers and worried mumbles. But nothing came and all was silent as Emily drifted off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2 Where Have the Years Gone?

Emily's alarm clock woke her the next morning and startled Jessie. As the ten-year old stood up and stretched, Jessie expected to be remembered and immediately became motionless; her stuffing became warm thinking of the sorrowful hug she would soon receive. But Emily quickly got dressed and left the room without looking under the bed. Jessie was not going to give up easily. After all, a toy is on your bed for years, so you're bound to realize it's gone sooner or later; right? Days passed with the same routine:

Emily left for school, came back and did homework, watched TV, and went to sleep. There was no sign that she knew something was missing. Jessie let out an irritable moan one day when Emily was at school. She couldn't believe she was forgotten so easily. It seemed like just yesterday they were jumping in leaves and playing hide-and-seek. Emily came home that day crying, and Jessie thought this was her chance. She's never cried without her best friend before.

Apparently, the girl got a new best friend, however. Emily spoke into the pink phone in her room. "Hello, Ruby? It's Em…yeah, I was crying. That's why I wanted to talk to you…yeah that's why…" and the conversation went on. As Emily got happier, she got off the bed and started walking around her room, while Jessie sat under the bed, utterly speechless. All hope was gone for her; the Jessie who never gave up had nothing else to do. So she spent months under the bed.

One day, Emily and her Mom were talking. "Are you ready to redo your room?" the mom asked.

"Totally!"

So piece by piece they started taking away Emily's Woody's Roundup collection and putting it under the bed, replacing it all with make-up and "groovy" 70's décor. By the time Emily was seventeen years old, Jessie was tired and dusty. "Anything else in your room!" Emily's mom called upstairs.

"Lemme check!" Emily called back down. She was trying to fit her make-up into her purse when it dropped and went all over the floor. "Shit." She mumbled to herself as she reached for her blush under the bed. Instead of feeling a circular tube, though, she felt a familiar cotton body and pulled it out to find a familiar cowgirl smiling at her. Emily smiled back with her wide grin and Jessie knew that Emily was still her young playmate, just an older version. Emily looked under the bed once more to see all the things she played with as a kid, and knew it would be perfect to donate to kids in need. She set Jessie down on her countertop facing the other way coincidently, so she had no idea what was going on." A few moments later, Emily went downstairs and back upstairs again to put Jessie in her purse. Jessie's stuffing was knotted in excitement of what was to come. She was riding in the car again with Emily. Nothing could be better.

It felt like old times, and Jessie secretly became anxious when they stopped at the park Emily would take her to every summer. But instead of going through the wooden fences, they made a turn, and Emily put Jessie in a box. Jessie looked around and saw all of Emily's former Woody's Roundup accessories. Without a hug or a mere goodbye, Emily ran back to her mom's car and they drove off, leaving Jessie alone, to watch the car drive into the distance. Suddenly the box's lids were closed and Jessie fell unconscious to be carried into the donation truck. It was dark and silent as Jessie clenched her knees and sat in one of the corners of the box. It took hours until the truck stopped at its destination. Jessie was thrown around the box because of the rockiness and was thankful that the trip was finally over. The truck drivers took all the boxes out and opened the lids. As they closed the truck's doors, a man who was of average height and very stout walked over to one of the workers and extended his hand. "Al from Al's Toy Barn. I was wondering if you wanted to negotiate some sort of deal. Let's say you had some stuffed animals who weren't too badly damaged; say I wanted to purchase these-"

"Don't bother trying-bucko." The driver interrupted. These were donated to charity for a reason.

"Yes, of course!" Al said in a voice that wasn't too believable. The worker shrugged and walked away.

Al was about to do the same when he saw the cowgirl with red yarn as hair. "Could it be?" Al whispered to himself and walked over to Jessie's box. "An original doll from Woody's roundup gang! My collection is going to be worth a fortune once I find the star of the show!" he whistled and casually reached his hand into the box without the driver seeing him, pulled out Jessie, tucked her under his pudgy arm, and fast-walked away.

**Sorry this chapter was so short! More to come! I promise! Next chapter will probably be the last. Itll be about her fear of darkness and meeting the Prospector and Bullseye. Please review so I know how to improve for the future! Xxo Bumble bee**


	3. Chapter 3 ROundup Gang Reunion

**Thanks to everyone who favored me and my story and to whoever is using the alerts. And I know I said so pathetic saying this (again) but please review with suggestions and stuff! Trust me, I'm one of the rare ones who craves criticism, because I want to make my writing better for all of you guys and myself! I'm sorta writing this chapter as it goes along it may be the last, or it may not. Hopefully its not too short or too long! Xo Bee**

Jessie the cowgirl was never scared; at the time she was just hurt, and wondering why a guy's under arm smelled like cow manor on a large plantation. Her plastic nose was relieved when Al set her down on a couch, though it was lumpy and filled with cheese puff powder. He held her face with one pudgy hand and studied it closely. "I'm goin' to make a fortune someday!" he said before leaving the room. He came back with a cardboard box, but as he set it down, a telephone rang from another room. After he was out of sight, the box shook.

"Hello?" Jessie whispered. "Anyone there?" The box kept shaking until it fell to its side. A stuffed, brown horse galloped out, and when he saw Jessie, ran at full speed towards her. Jessie knew the horse looked familiar, so when she thought back to Woody's Roundup, it only took her seconds to realize. "Sweet Mother of Abraham Lincoln!" she exclaimed. "Bullseye, it's you!" Bullseye answered this by licking Jessie's face.

"Oh, my!" a familiar voice said from the cardboard box.

"Prospector?" Jessie asked. "Is that you?"

"Why yes it is, Jessie." The man's gruff voice replied.

"Why don't you come outta there?" she asked.

"Come and have a closer look." He answered.

Jessie went to the turned-over box and peaked inside. She gasped. "Prospector! You're still in your box!"

"Yes I am." He said calmly. "Never opened; in mint-condition."

"That's horrible! How did anyone ever play with you?" she sighed.

"I never belonged to a child, Jessie. Al found me at a thrift store many, many years ago, and has preserved me ever since." He scooted his way inches out of the box.

Jessie bowed her head apologetically.

"Don't be sad, child." The Prospector begged in his soft voice. "A few years ago Al found o' Bullseye at a garage sale and immediately bought him, so I've had a lil company."

"I wish Al found me a few years ago." She sighed. "A few years ago was when Emily stopped playing with me."

"I take it this Emily was your owner?"

"More like my world. Or used to be anyway. I was under her bed for quite some time." Jessie started pulling on her braid. She was surprised by this antic, but this was the first time she had communication with any toy that wasn't a plastic horse. And it was the first time she talked about Emily out loud.

"Well, we're your family now, and unlike her, we won't hurt you no more." The Prospector reassured her. Jessie smiled. It was like they copy and pasted the exact one from Woody's Roundup. He was wise, sensitive, and kind. "Thanks." She said. "What does this here Al want with a couple 'a toys like us anyway?"

"Well, this museum is willin' to pay Al a whole lot if he sends them the Woody's Roundup collection." The Prospector explained.

"Where is this museum?" Jessie wondered.

"Japan." The Prospector said matter-of-factly.

"Japan? Yee-haw!" Jessie slapped her knee.

"Don't get too excited there, cowgirl." The Prospector let out a laugh. "They want the whole collection, meaning we are missin' a very important person."

"Woody?" Jessie guessed with a bit of sarcasm in her voice.

"You're darn tootin'" the Prospector replied.

"What do we do 'til then?" Jessie asked.

"Well, we're usually kept in that there box." The Prospector said. But there are times he takes us out for a cleanin'. And that's when we get to play with all our neat gizmos, that is, if Al leaves the room."

'_Okay, I stay in a box for a little while. No harm in that.' _Jessie thought. "What gizmos?" she asked not noticing her surroundings.

"Well, look around you, cowgirl!" the Prospector exclaimed. "Al has gone coo-coo for Woody's Roundup!"

Jessie spun slowly in a circle and saw that the room was filled with Woody's Roundup accessories. It astonished her. She spent all her time focusing on the Prospector, she didn't bother looking around. Jessie jumped up and down excitedly, and Bullseye took this opportunity to go underneath her. Jessie laughed and pet Bullseye's mane. "Giddy up, partner!" she said as Bullseye galloped around the room with the cowgirl on his back. Jessie and her horse laughed and played and used the Woody's Roundup Gang gadgets, as if they were always so close. Jessie never felt so free, well except when she played with Emily. Ah, Emily. The mere thought of her sent Jessie into a frenzy.

"You, okay, cowgirl?" the Prospector noticed her subtle change in mood from where he stood.

"Yes." Jessie lied. "Just takin' this all in."

At that second, the toys heard footsteps so they quickly resumed their positions. Jessie climbed back onto the couch as the Prospector scooted himself back into the box. Bullseye then turned the box right-side-up by pushing with his head, and jumped in. Al came in to find things exactly as he left them, not like he expected differently.

He took his plump hands and picked Jessie up. "You, my little cowgirl, along with all your friends, are gonna make me a fortune one day." And with that, he put Jessie in the box with the other toys. Jessie didn't like Al, but silently thanked him for putting her with the roundup gang.

**Hope you enjoyed the chapter! Next chapter will probably be the last, but then again I said that about this chapter! But I can assure most of you that next chapter will pretty much wrap up Jessie's story before Toy Story 2 takes over. Your reviews mean the world to me! **


	4. Finally

**Goal: update my toy story stories. Sorry for the delay!**

"How much longer are we gonna be in here!" Jessie screeched one day, banging her two fists on a side of the box. Al put their box into a closet six months ago so that they didn't sit in the middle of his apartment.

"Calm down, Jessie." Said a voice somewhere else in the closed spaced. She assumed it was the Prospector, only because it was the two of them and Bullseye. She wouldn't have known otherwise because they were in pitch darkness.

"Calm down…calm down!" Jessie screamed. "I have seen nothing but darkness for the past six months. I need light. I need air."

"You're a toy, Jessie. You don't need oxygen." Stinky Pete said.

"You get what I mean." Jessie retorted. She sat in a corner of the box, clinging her knees to her chest.

"Trust me, Woody will be found soon enough."

Jessie nodded and drifted off to sleep. Her dream took her onto a blank, black page. She ran nowhere in particular, but there was nothing put pitch darkness. Out of nowhere, she began to fall downwards, as if going down a black slide. When she finally landed, clear walls-that the darkness showed through-surrounded her in a box form. The more she pushed on a wall, the closer the sides pushed together, becoming smaller and smaller. Jessie stopped struggling and sat in a ball, but the walls kept pushing, until it was cramped enough that she couldn't move an inch. She let out a blood-curdling scream, in and out of her dream.

"Bullseye, Bullseye. Go comfort the poor child." The prospector pleaded. Bullseye nodded in agreement and nuzzled his nose to Jessie's face. Jessie's eyes opened and became wide. She pet Bullseye's mane.

"Thanks, Boy." She said gratefully. Jessie looked around and realized that her reality became a dream, or a nightmare.

"You're giving us quite a scare, child. Are you alright?"

"Actually, I'm not. I swear, if I don't get out of here now, I will go crazy, Prospector." Jessie said shakily.

Bullseye stood up and tried to tip the box over. He felt bad for his friend and needed to do something. He wanted to open the door for her. Jessie saw this and felt bad for putting her horse in pain. "Thanks, Bullseye. But I'll be alright."

Months went by, about thirteen. Jessie kept having nightmares, but kept it low-key as to not scare Bullseye again. But the feeling of being trapped never left her mind. One day, the closet was opened and the toys became lifeless. Al took the box out and Jessie's stitches tightened. She was out. Woody was here. But he wasn't. It was a toy repairer. Before Jessie had time to think about who was outside the box, a long, bony hand grabbed her gently around the waist. He had a long, thin nose and big, wide glasses. "She needs a few touches." The guy's voice was crisp and worn. He turned to Al. "It'll cost you a little, though." Al nodded vigorously as the man set up his workshop.

Jessie was set up in a miniature barber's chair and a mini apron was tied around her neck. A big magnifying glass was placed at an angle above Jessie's face. First the repairer used a duster to clean her face and outfit from being in the closet for all that time. Then, her lips were polished with the original shade of pink-red. The final touch was simple, but took a long time. The toy repairer carefully strung thread through a needle and sewed millimeter-sized stitches along Jessie's shoulder, where a miniature, hard-to-see rip was. Jessie felt a wave of guilt as her shoulder was being re-sewed.

She got that rip one day in the park, when she was riding Emily piggy-back style, with Emily's hands holding Jessie's legs. With Jessie on her back, Emily leaped off the tire swing and started to run in the open field. That was when Jessie's shoulder stuck to a very thin branch hanging off an oak tree, and then the stitches broke. Emily didn't notice 'til that night, when she did a poor job trying to sew her on her own. Emily was proud she "fixed" her best friend on her own, and told Jessie so. Metaphorically, officially closing the rip was like closing Jessie's old life all together. Jessie mentally shook her head, 'No.' she thought. 'That part of my life has been over for a long time already.'

Once the man was done, he unstrapped the apron from Jessie's plastic neck and took her out of the chair. Before Jessie's eyes, the little barber shop was compacted into a mini suitcase. The two grown men walked out of the room with Al pleading, "C'mon, Bill, gimme a discount! I thought we were pals…"

Jessie sat up on the desk where Bill placed her and pasted on a wide grin. "I'm out!" she exclaimed

She climbed the edge of the box and peered in to see Bullseye and the Prospector smiling back at her. "I'm out! I'm out!" she reiterated many times before her boot lost its grip on the cardboard and the cowgirl feel forward into the box. "I'm in…" she grumbled and crossed her arms. Unfortunately, there was no time to tip the box over because Al came storming back in, muttering, "Thirty-bucks to use a sewing needle and thread!" A loud ring was coming from Al's pocket.

"What is it!" he snapped. "Oh, um, I didn't know it was you-…yes of course sir…I just need a little more time…I assure you, sir, I have the entire collection. I just need to…yes sir, two more weeks is perfect, sir…check is fine, sir…Thank you!" He hung up the phone and hastily stormed out of the room. Jessie took this opportunity to knock into a side of the box and knock it over. With no such luck, Bullseye ducked under Jessie's jumping legs and gave her a boost.

"Thanks boy!" she said, petting his mane before she climbed over the edge. From the edge of the box, she saw a bright light reflected inside the room from a large window. Jessie craved to be in the center of that light; she needed it. So she shakily ran towards a chair and had enough momentum to jump on it, and from there she climbed on top of the windowsill. Bullseye joined her a few minutes later and they sat in silence

!#$%^&*()

Al was caught in Saturday traffic when he tried to get on the highway, so he turned his car around, looking for a back way around town. While driving, he went up a local street and saw tables filled with old junk. 'Old junk,' he thought, 'means cheap gifts.' So he parked his car a few houses away, so it looked like he was already in the neighborhood and only came across the yard sale by coincidence. He picked up a few cheap necessities, when…

"_There's a snake in my boot!"_

_!#$%^&*))_

Jessie and Bullseye sat in silence, that's how they hard the loud pitter-patter of footsteps in Al's office. Bullseye jumped up and when he saw Jessie did not do the same, he got under her and then galloped back to the box, not realizing Jessie did not move on purpose. But before she could get a word in edge-wise, kind-hearted Bullseye decided to help Jessie and pushed her into the box using his nose. Bullseye hopped in to, and with no time for Jessie to argue, Al walked in. He was there for a matter of minutes, before he started yelling into his phone again, this time about work, put on his chicken suit, and slammed the door behind him.

The toys in storage heard another toy's gasps and its footsteps, which were assumed to be trying to find an exit. Jessie's hope increased. "Go investigate, boy!" she told Bullseye, forgetting why she was mad in the first place. Bullseye nodded and jumped out of the box, this time, in his excitement, foam pieces were bounced out of the box and onto the floor.

A lot of commotion happened in the last few minutes. "Heal, boy! HEAL!" yelled the new toy as he was flung into a wall. Before he could get up, Jessie, with her newfound strength, jumped onto the Prospector's box and then jumped out of the cardboard. She turned her head upside down so it was the same way as the cowboy. It was him.

And with a blood-pressure rising yell, Jessie screamed, "YEE-HAW!"

_**And the rest of the story is known.**_

Hope everyone enjoyed my take on Jessie!


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